Howth Yacht Club hosted 54 boats in three RS classes for the RS400, RS200 and RS Feva National Championships last weekend. Despite shifty wind conditions on the Friday and Saturday (including a 100 degree wind shift) in wind strengths between 8 and 15 knots, the ten-race schedule was successfully completed by PRO David Lovegrove and his team.
In the RS400 class, brothers Emmet and James Ryan from the Royal St George took top spot. They didn't make things easy by using up a discard on the first race of the event and only snatched the win on the last run of the last race having rounded the final weather mark in fourth place. Greystones class stalwarts Simon Herriott and Tom Moran took 2ndplace. In 3rdplace and top youth team was Andy Verso and Oisin Baugh, also from Greystones.
In the RS200 class, it was another family affair and another Royal St George win with father and son, Sean and Stephen Craig taking 1st place thanks to four individual race wins. It was extremely tight at the top of the fleet with only three points separating the top four boats in the end. Teams from Greystones filled the next two podium places with Frank and Kevin O'Rourke taking 2ndand defending champions Roy Van Maanen and Glen Reid taking third place.
In the RS Feva class, the biggest fleet of the three with 26 entries, GB sailors dominated with Elliott Wells and Jake Todd from Hayling Island winning the series, while the Cork crew of Eoin Lyden and Brian Stokes - as the leading Irish crew in 6th spot - took the honours as Feva National Champions. HYC sailors had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Silver Fleet and the winners of the U-13 prize were Howth brothers Ewan and Jamie McMahon.
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